Some of the most interesting cultural riches in the Cappadocia Region are the 150-200 known undergruond settlements of varying sizes. However, since there are cliff settlements of different sizes, in all the towns and villages in the region covering an area of 25 000 square km., this number maybe underestimated. Most of the rock settlements of this kind were built by hollowing out the tufa from the ground. Except the traces made by tools while hollowing, we do not have much information about the techniques they used.

The name "undergronud city" is widely used, however, only some of them were big enough to accommodate 30000 people and can be called "underground cities" but it is possible to call other small ones as "underground villages."

Since the Cappadocia region was subjected to frequent raids, the aim of building these cities as to provide people with places where they could take shelter temporarrily during times of danger. The underground cities were connected by hidden passages to almost all the houses in the region. To provide greater protection from their ermemies, the people living in the region made the rooms difficult to get into and laid traps in various places of the rock dwellings. When needed, they hollowed out new rooms under the floors of the existing rooms. In this way, the passages and chambers, increasing in number, formet underground settlements.